Northwest Amazon Research Articles

Acoustic properties of stress in Kubeo

This paper explores the realization of stress in Kubeo, a Tukanoan language from the Northwest Amazonia with both stress and tone (H vs. HL). The first H tone of a word docks on the primary stressed syllable, which by default is the second syllable except in words with lexical initial stress. Secondary stress occurs every two syllables to the right of the primary stress. F0, duration, intensity and the first two formants were measured for vowels in a corpus of 150 words ranging from one to six syllables. Results from two speakers indicate that primary stress is associated with the greatest duration and most peripheral vowel qualities. Unstressed pre-tonic syllables are phonetically more prominent than their post-tonic counterparts along all dimensions except F0, which depends on lexical tone. In post-tonic unstressed syllables, duration, intensity, and vowel quality are all dependent on lexical tone. Secondary stress is less salient due to interference from lexical tones but appears to be associated with longer duration and more peripheral vowels relative to unstressed syllables. Our results enrich typological knowledge of both the acoustic realization of stress in tone languages and the interplay of tonal and metrical phonology in languages with complex word level prosody.

Stability in a changing world - palm community dynamics in the hyperdiverse western Amazon over 17years.

Are the hyperdiverse local forests of the western Amazon undergoing changes linked to global and local drivers such as climate change, or successional dynamics? We analyzed local climatic records to assess potential climatic changes in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador, and compared two censuses (1995, 2012) of a palm community to assess changes in community structure and composition. Over 17years, the structure and composition of this palm community remained remarkably stable. Soil humidity was significantly lower and canopy conditions were significantly more open in 2012 compared to 1995, but local climatic records showed that no significant changes in precipitation, temperature or river level have occurred during the last decade. Thus, we found no evidence of recent directional shifts in climate or the palm community in Yasuní. The absence of changes in local climate and plant community dynamics in Yasuní contrasts with recent findings from eastern Amazon, where environmental change is driving significant changes in ecosystem dynamics. Our findings suggest that until now, local forests in the northwest Amazon may have escaped pressure from climate change. The stability of this rich palm community embedded in the hyperdiverse Yasuní National Park underlines its uniqueness as a sanctuary for the protection of Amazonian diversity from global change impacts.

The Revitalization of Yajé Shamanism among the Siona: Strategies of Survival in Historical Context

AbstractThis article outlines the transformations of yajé shamanism among the Siona Indians of the Northwest Amazon Basin of Colombia. The shaman's role and the political and sacred use of yajé rituals have changed since colonial times and can be seen as a result of adaptive strategies for survival. This study examines the factors that have contributed to the current revitalization due to state and popular representations of the ecological and wise Indian. Although Gow and Taussig argue that ayahuasca shamanism in Peru and folk healing in Colombia rose out of colonial domination and proletarian concerns, Siona shamanic practices are best understood as a transfiguration and result of their particular response to outside forces. Their contemporary use of yajé reflects this past and the discourse, aesthetics, expectations, and demands of the larger society.

Wise People of Great Power

Indigenous prophet movements in the Americas have historically engaged the most threatening and dangerous Other, the White Man. The savants of the Northwest Amazon region of South America have mostly sought to defy the destructive power of the White Man’s knowledge by disclosing hidden, internal sources of conmict and conserving religious traditions. A long succession of prophetic leaders from the mid-nineteenth century to the present has sustained the continuity of ancestral traditions even at great risk to the leaders’ lives. I take a multiplex, interpretive approach to these shamanic traditions, grounded in the exegesis of their ancestral practices.

Indigenous Names, Revitalization Politics, and Regimes of Recognition in the Northwest Amazon

ResumoEste artigo analisa como as práticas do estado e os movimentos de valorização cultural estão contribuindo para a mudança da identidade indígena e das práticas culturais dos povos tukano e baré no Noroeste da Amazônia. Considerou‐se como as políticas de reconhecimento e autenticidade usada pelo estado em relação aos nomes indígenas, interagem com o esforço de valorizar e revitalizar as línguas e culturas minoritárias. Demonstrou‐se que, para cada um desses diferentes grupos indígenas, tanto nas ideias quanto nas práticas culturais em relação aos nomes indígenas e as identidades apresentadas podem ser vistas grandes mudanças devido aos novos sentidos políticos aos quais são ligados.

Linguistic exogamy and language shift in the northwest Amazon

Abstract The sociocultural complex of the northwest Amazon is remarkable for its system of linguistic exogamy in which individuals marry outside their language groups. This article illustrates how linguistic exogamy crucially relies upon the alignment of descent and post-marital residence. Native ideologies apprehend languages as the inalienable possessions of patrilineally reckoned descent groups. At the same time, post-marital residence is traditionally patrilocal. This alignment between descent and post-marital residence means that the language which children are normatively expected to produce – the language of their patrilineal descent group – is also the language most widely spoken in the local community, easing acquisition of the target language. Indigenous migration to Catholic mission centers in the twentieth century and ongoing migration to urban areas along the Rio Negro in Brazil are reconfiguring the relationship between multilingualism and marriage. With out-migration from patrilineally-based villages, descent and post-marital residence are no longer aligned. Multilingualism is being rapidly eroded, with language shift from minority Eastern Tukanoan languages to Tukano being widespread. Continued practice of descent group exogamy even under such conditions of widespread language shift reflects how the semiotic relationship between language and descent group membership is conceptualized within the system of linguistic exogamy.

New native South American Y chromosome lineages.

Many single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the non-recombining region of the human Y chromosome have been described in the last decade. High-coverage sequencing has helped to characterize new SNPs, which has in turn increased the level of detail in paternal phylogenies. However, these paternal lineages still provide insufficient information on population history and demography, especially for Native Americans. The present study aimed to identify informative paternal sublineages derived from the main founder lineage of the Americas-haplogroup Q-L54-in a sample of 1841 native South Americans. For this purpose, we used a Y-chromosomal genotyping multiplex platform and conventional genotyping methods to validate 34 new SNPs that were identified in the present study by sequencing, together with many Y-SNPs previously described in the literature. We updated the haplogroup Q phylogeny and identified two new Q-M3 and three new Q-L54*(xM3) sublineages defined by five informative SNPs, designated SA04, SA05, SA02, SA03 and SA29. Within the Q-M3, sublineage Q-SA04 was mostly found in individuals from ethnic groups belonging to the Tukanoan linguistic family in the northwest Amazon, whereas sublineage Q-SA05 was found in Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon ethnic groups. Within Q-L54*, the derived sublineages Q-SA03 and Q-SA02 were exclusively found among Coyaima individuals (Cariban linguistic family) from Colombia, while Q-SA29 was found only in Maxacali individuals (Jean linguistic family) from southeast Brazil. Furthermore, we validated the usefulness of several published SNPs among indigenous South Americans. This new Y chromosome haplogroup Q phylogeny offers an informative paternal genealogy to investigate the pre-Columbian history of South America.Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 31 March 2016; doi:10.1038/jhg.2016.26.

Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon. Robin M.Wright. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 387 pp.

Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon. Robin M.Wright. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 387 pp.

A ORIGEM DA NOITE E POR QUE O SOL É CHAMADO DE "FOLHA DE CARANÁ"

Resumo A partir da análise de um amplo conjunto de narrativas sobre a origem da noite, obtidas junto aos povos indígenas da bacia do Alto Rio Negro no noroeste amazônico, este artigo explora o modo como esses povos representam a alternância entre o dia e a noite em diferentes planos de significantes - nos sons e cores dos insetos, pássaros e animais da floresta; nos materiais, texturas e cores de suas casas e objetos; no corpo humano; e na música e na dança rituais. Este último plano nos permitirá compreender o ritual como um mecanismo de controle do tempo. Além disso, espero lançar luz sobre as razões pelas quais, em muitas línguas da família Tukano Oriental, os termos para "sol" e para "lua" significam também, respectivamente, "colmo" e "folha".

Proto Bora-Muinane

Bora and Muinane are two neighboring, relatively closely related languages spoken in the North-West Amazon. Whether these two languages can be shown to be genealogically related to other languages is still debated. In this paper, we provide a reconstruction of 416 proto Bora-Muinane word forms and of the proto Bora-Muinane phonological system. Our reconstruction confirms an earlier reconstruction by Aschmann (1993), but also differs from it in some important respects. We firmly establish sound changes in Bora and Muinane based on extensive data and first-hand knowledge of the languages involved. The reconstructed proto Bora-Muinane forms presented here provide a sound basis for re-evaluating the genealogical relationship of Bora-Muinane with Witoto and Ocaina, which was proposed by Aschmann (1993), and opens the possibility to search for genealogical relations with other languages.

The Pleiades and Scorpius in Barasana Cosmology

In 1905, the German ethnographer Koch-Grünberg published a report of an Indian astronomical system from the Northwest Amazon region.1 His account, based on drawings by two Indian informants, has remained one of the most comprehensive descriptions of ethnoastronomy from lowland South America. Scattered references to star lore in the works of other writers,2 together with Koch-Grünberg’s own word lists of the many different languages spoken in the area,3 suggest that the basic elements of the system he described are probably common to all the Tukanoan speaking Indians of the Vaupés and to their Arawakan speaking neighbors to the north. In his account, Koch-Grünberg identifies some seventeen named stars and constellations and states that knowledge of astronomy is used in time reckoning, orientation, and the regulation of agricultural activities. But little information is given, either by him or by other writers, as to how this knowledge is used and how it relates to the cosmology and worldview of the Indians involved. In this paper, I shall try to answer some of these questions with reference to the Barasana.

“Graduated authenticity”: Multilingualism, revitalization, and identity in the Northwest Amazon

In the Upper Rio Negro region of the Northwest Amazon of Brazil, although language plays a vital role in determining and understanding identity, the 21 Indigenous languages spoken there can all be considered endangered. Power dynamics among speakers of the various Indigenous languages complicate the political debate about what it means to be Indigenous. Questions of authenticity and the importance of “traditional” practices for revitalization projects take on political significance in these debates. In this paper, I use the concept of “graduated authenticity” to demonstrate how different configurations of ethnic identity, ancestry, and language contribute to assessments of individuals' “authenticity”. The politicized nature of revitalization introduces new concerns for assessing the dynamics of multilingualism and Indigenous identities.

Fruits for Animals: Hunting Avoidance Speech Style in Murui (Witoto, Northwest Amazonia)

This paper is describes the hunting avoidance speech style of the Murui, a Witoto people from southern Colombia and northern Peru. Murui men employ a special vocabulary used when hunting bigger game. It is a system of lexical substitution employed to deceive the animal spirits by avoidance of the utterance of the animals' names. Uttering tabooed words would result in an unsuccessful hunting: animal spirits would know they are to be hunted and, therefore, they would escape. Animals are, therefore, 'renamed'. This culturally significant speech register, which is subject to a high degree of metalinguistic awareness, is referred to by native speakers as 'skilled speech'. Avoidance terms and their referents appear to be iconic: substitute terms are generally based on physical similarity or characteristic behaviour between the animal whose name is avoided and some, typically non-faunal, natural objects (commonly fruits) (cf. Stasch 2008). The iconic aspect, and the consistent rank shifting from the faunal term to the floral term, suggest important ideological aspects to the register. Nowadays, this special avoidance speech style is on the wane. With the increasing influence of Christianity, and subsequent decrease of importance of evil spirits, the 'hunting' avoidance speech style is almost exclusively indicative to older generations of the Murui people.

Robin M.Wright. Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon. Foreword by Michael J. Harner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. xv + 387 pp., appendices, notes, bibliography, index.

Robin M.Wright. Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon. Foreword by Michael J. Harner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. xv + 387 pp., appendices, notes, bibliography, index.

Conversion of land use and cover in northwest Amazon (Brazil)

The increasing use of natural resources in a disorderly way has been demanding constant monitoring and ecological-economic zoning. The knowledge on land use and cover allows that measures that guarantee the preservation, maintenance of the environment and space management be appropriate to the reality, since through these factors it is possible to follow the probable environmental impacts and the socioeconomic development of a place in several contexts. The Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques have been applied to land use and land cover mapping. This study aimed to analyze the conversion of land use from different perspectives, concerning geoprocessing techniques, in the southeastern of Roraima State, Brazil, in two distinct periods. In order to verify the land use and cover, two analyses were conducted, using the Spring and TerraView softwares. Great part of the cultivated areas was converted into capoeira, what probably denotes an ending of profitable agriculture, as well as its abandonment caused by the nutritional deficiency of the soil, that became inappropriate for cultivation in the subsequent years. A fuzzy logic would possibly fit well to the types of data analyzed, because the attribute query is overly complex.

Language Contact and Language Blend: Kumandene Tariana of Northwest Amazonia

The Vaupés River Basin in northwest Amazonia is a well-established linguistic area characterized by obligatory multilingualism and exogamy based on linguistic allegiance. The core members of the area who take part in the multilingual marriage network are speakers of East Tucanoan languages and of one Arawak language, Tariana. The impact of East Tucanoan influence on Tariana is recognizable through structural diffusion. Two dialects of Tariana are currently spoken. Wamiarikune Tariana (W-Tariana), with a few speakers in the middle Vaupés area, is highly endangered; it is under strong pressure from Tucano. Kumandene Tariana (K-Tariana), also endangered, is spoken in the community of Santa Terezinha on the Iauarí River (tributary of the Lower Vaupés). The K-Tariana moved to their present location from Iauaretê on the middle Vaupés two generations ago, escaping pressure from Catholic missionaries. The K-Tariana intermarry with the Baniwa Hohôdene, speakers of a closely related language, now the major language in their village. Over the past 50 years, speakers of K-Tariana have acquired numerous Baniwa features. This can be seen through comparison with older sources on this dialect. At present, the degree of Baniwa impact on Kumandene Tariana varies, depending on the speaker and on the audience. The result is a curious language blend. This paper discusses the status of K-Tariana in the context of other blended, or “merged,” languages.

Patrones de distribución de especies arbóreas de dosel y sotobosque a escala local en bosques de tierra firme, Amazonia colombiana

The effect of environmental variation on the structure of tree communities in tropical forests is still under debate. There is evidence that in landscapes like Tierra Firme forest, where the environmental gradient decreases at a local level, the effect of soil on the distribution patterns of plant species is minimal, happens to be random or is due to biological processes. In contrast, in studies with different kinds of plants from tropical forests, a greater effect on floristic composition of varying soil and topography has been reported. To assess this, the current study was carried out in a permanent plot of ten hectares in the Amacayacu National Park, Colombian Amazonia. To run the analysis, floristic and environmental variations were obtained according to tree species abundance categories and growth forms. In order to quantify the role played by both environmental filtering and dispersal limitation, the variation of the spatial configuration was included. We used Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Canonical Correspondence Analysis, followed by a variation partitioning, to analyze the species distribution patterns. The spatial template was evaluated using the Principal Coordinates of Neighbor Matrix method. We recorded 14 074 individuals from 1 053 species and 80 families. The most abundant families were Myristicaceae, Moraceae, Meliaceae, Arecaceae and Lecythidaceae, coinciding with other studies from Northwest Amazonia. Beta diversity was relatively low within the plot. Soils were very poor, had high aluminum concentration and were predominantly clayey. The floristic differences explained along the ten hectares plot were mainly associated to biological processes, such as dispersal limitation. The largest proportion of community variation in our dataset was unexplained by either environmental or spatial data. In conclusion, these results support random processes as the major drivers of the spatial variation of tree species at a local scale on Tierra Firme forests of Amacayacu National Park, and suggest reserve's size as a key element to ensure the conservation of plant diversity at both regional and local levels.

Mysteries of the jaguar shamans of the northwest Amazon

Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon tells the life story of Mandu da Silva, the last living jaguar shaman among the Baniwa people in the northwest Amazon. In this original and engaging work, Robin M. Wright, who has known and worked with da Silva for more than thirty years, weaves the story of da Silva's life together with the Baniwas' society, history, mythology, cosmology, and jaguar shaman traditions. The jaguar shamans are key players in what Wright calls nexus of religious power and in which healers, sorcerers, priestly chanters, and dance-leaders exercise complementary functions that link living specialists with the deities and great spirits of the cosmos. By exploring in depth the apprenticeship of the shaman, Wright shows how jaguar shamans acquire the knowledge and power of the deities in several stages of instruction and practice. This volume is the first mapping of the sacred geography (mythscape) of the Northern Arawak-speaking people of the northwest Amazon, demonstrating direct connections between petroglyphs and other inscriptions and Baniwa sacred narratives as a whole. In eloquent and inviting analytic prose, Wright links biographic and ethnographic elements in elevating anthropological writing to a new standard of theoretically aware storytelling and analytic power.

Wright, Robin M.: Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon

Wright, Robin M.: Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon

On Proto-Languages and Archaeological Cultures: pre-history and material culture in the Tukanoan Family

This work analyzes the cultural history of the Tukanoan family by attempting the reconstruction of 107 words related to the material culture shared by Amazonian peoples, especially in the Northwest Amazon. The analysis of the terminological system of words that can be reconstructed to Proto-Tukanoan, as well as words that can only be reconstructed to intermediate proto-languages or words that cannot be reconstructed at all allows for a set of cultural inferences regarding the historic evolution of Tukanoan family, which is accomplished along a dialogue with the ethnographic and archeological literature of the Northwest Amazon, as well as following in general terms the proposals for linking Historical Linguistics and Archaeology in different parts of the globe. It is concluded that there was a process of cultural differentiation between the two main branches of the Tukanoan family, as the reflex of distinct integration of each branch in different regional subsystems in the Northwest Amazon.